One of the highlights of the IAM (International Association of Movers) conference every year is the IAM General and State of the IAM address.
This is where the organisation brings together many of the initiative leaders to present their achievements during the year and to honour those who helped them along the way. It’s also an opportunity for the President, Brian Limperopulos, to welcome everyone to the 62nd IAM Annual Meeting and to update the membership on the progress of the organisation and its plans for the immediate future.
First on stage was Angela DeConti, Director of the Alan F Wohlstetter Scholarship Fund and Industry Initiatives Manager at IAM. She explained that the Fund was aiming to expand its reach to grow the impact of the scholarship programme to include younger students and those from trade schools. Students were also now able to apply for scholarships in their native languages.
Angela said that since its inception the Fund has distributed 329 individual cash awards to help educate members of the industry amounting to over $785,000. She also announced Gabriela Humeniuk from Lift-Van International Company SA in Argentina as this year’s winner of the $2,500 Jackie Agner Award for community service.
Terry Head, former IAM President, was introduced as the Fund’s new chairman. In his presentation he announced that the Fund was to change into a ‘fully blown’ foundation called the Global Moving Foundation. Its brief is to focus on four main areas: education, innovation, charitable endeavours and becoming a sharing point for the activities of all industry stakeholders. Terry is now the GMF chairman with Angela as the director. The Mover has recorded an interview with Terry and Angela which will be published in full in the January 2025 issue.
Adam Lowy from Mover for Hunger was next on stage to present the Mover of the Year Award. Adam created Move for Hunger 15 years ago to collect unwanted, non-perishable food from people who were moving, and distribute it to those in need. He said that over the last 15 years the organisation had delivered 42 million meals and the operation was growing so fast that 12 million of them were in the last year. He thanked all the people in the room, and paid tribute to the companies that had taken part by delivering thousands of meals. The 2024 award went to Beltmann Relocation Group.
IAM Young professionals. Chair of the IAM YP, Sheena Kiser, Chair of the IAM Young professionals, presented the YP Rising Star award to Luis Holst from Gridiron Forwarding in the USA. She said that the vision of the IAM YP is to engage and serve all moving and mobility professionals under the age of 40. Its mission is to provide those people with professional development, networking and philanthropic opportunities to prepare the current membership to lead IAM in the future. She said that Luis exemplified these values “and has shown dedication, leadership and unwavering commitment to his company, colleagues and the Boards he serves on”.
Addressing the meeting Luis said that it was an honour to receive the award and gave tribute to those who had won it in the past. He also gave some advice to young people who are new to the industry ...
Photos (left to right): Brian Limperopulous; Terry Head; Luis Holst.